Tracking Labels
The CPSC believes that the purpose of the tracking labels requirement is not to impose significant burdens on manufacturers who already make the required information about their products available, but to raise those who do not to a higher standard. The statutory provision does not require a one-size-fits-all system, and the CPSC states that it is not imposing any such uniform requirements at this time. Further, the CPSC states that it will not likely seek penalties if required information is inadvertently omitted as long as manufacturers, in good faith, educate themselves on the requirement and consider ways to comply.
Manufacturers, defined as manufacturers and importers, are responsible for compliance with the tracking labels requirement. The requirement applies only to children's products, and their packaging, which are manufactured on or after August 14, 2009. The requirement does not apply retroactively to products manufactured prior to this date.
Among the key areas addressed by this new CPSC statement of policy are circumstances in which a tracking label might not always be practicable, including the following:
- If a product is too small to be marked.
- If a toy is meant to be stored in a box or other packaging, such as games with boards and small game pieces. In such cases, the board and the box need to be marked, but not the individual game pieces. The same principle would apply to arts and crafts kits for children.
- If a product is sold through bulk vending machines, the individual items need not be marked, but the package or carton in which the items were shipped to the retailer should be marked.
- If a physical mark would weaken or damage the product or impair its utility.
- If a product surface would be impossible to mark permanently, such as those made of elastics, beads or small pieces of fabric.
- If the aesthetics of the product would be ruined by a mark, and a mark cannot be placed in an accessible but inconspicuous location.
- The CPSC also states that items meant to be sold as sets or pairs, and which function only as sets or pairs, require only one item of the pair or an integral part of the set to be marked.
Click here to read more about the CPSC Statement of Policy regarding Tracking Labels.
Inaccessible Component Parts
This interpretive rule, effective August 14, 2009, provides guidance about which product components or classes of components will be considered "inaccessible" for the purposes of compliance with the lead limits under Section 101 of the CPSIA. In general, inaccessible component parts do not have to comply with the lead content limits or be tested and certified as to lead content. Only the accessible portions of a product, unless specifically excluded from lead content requirements or the testing requirements, would require testing and certification to the lead content limits. The CPSC's final interpretive rule provides the following guidance for determining inaccessibility:
- For products that are effectively sealed so that there is no point of entry to any internal parts that contain lead, use of accessibility probes would be necessary to demonstrate that the parts are not accessible. However, the material which encases or encloses the inaccessible lead-containing part would need to be tested.
- The use and abuse tests at 16 CFR § 1500.50-1500.53 will be used to evaluate the accessibility of lead-containing component parts of a children’s product for the specific age group for which the product is intended. In addition, 16 CFR § 1500.87(h) is revised to make clear that the test under 16 CFR § 1500.87(g) will apply to products intended for children over 96 months through 12 years of age.
- Since the bite test currently is not applied as part of use and abuse testing in general, it will not be applied for the purposes of evaluating whether lead-containing component parts are accessible.
- A children's product that is or contains a lead-containing part which is enclosed, encased, or covered by fabric, and which passes the appropriate use and abuse tests on such covers, is inaccessible to a child unless the product or part of the product in one dimension is smaller than 5 centimeters.
- The intentional disassembly or destruction of products by children older than 8 years of age by means or knowledge not generally available to younger children, including use of tools, will not be considered in evaluating products for accessibility of lead-containing components.
- Currently, the CPSC does not have specific requirements on the effects of aging on the integrity of children’s products; however, it will continue to review this matter and will issue further guidance in the future if it deems such guidance is necessary.
- Acrylic polymer layers of a compact disk or DVD are not considered to be a coating. If the internal metallic layer of a disk is not accessible to a child, testing and certification would not be required.
Click here to read more about the CPSC's Interpretive Rule about Inaccessible Component Parts.